Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60T—VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES
  • B60T13/00—Transmitting braking action from initiating means to ultimate brake actuator with power assistance or drive; Brake systems incorporating such transmitting means, e.g. air-pressure brake systems
  • B60T13/10—Transmitting braking action from initiating means to ultimate brake actuator with power assistance or drive; Brake systems incorporating such transmitting means, e.g. air-pressure brake systems with fluid assistance, drive, or release
  • B60T13/66—Electrical control in fluid-pressure brake systems
  • B60T13/68—Electrical control in fluid-pressure brake systems by electrically-controlled valves
  • B60T13/683—Electrical control in fluid-pressure brake systems by electrically-controlled valves in pneumatic systems or parts thereof
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60T—VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES
  • B60T13/00—Transmitting braking action from initiating means to ultimate brake actuator with power assistance or drive; Brake systems incorporating such transmitting means, e.g. air-pressure brake systems
  • B60T13/10—Transmitting braking action from initiating means to ultimate brake actuator with power assistance or drive; Brake systems incorporating such transmitting means, e.g. air-pressure brake systems with fluid assistance, drive, or release
  • B60T13/66—Electrical control in fluid-pressure brake systems
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60T—VEHICLE BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF; BRAKE CONTROL SYSTEMS OR PARTS THEREOF, IN GENERAL; ARRANGEMENT OF BRAKING ELEMENTS ON VEHICLES IN GENERAL; PORTABLE DEVICES FOR PREVENTING UNWANTED MOVEMENT OF VEHICLES; VEHICLE MODIFICATIONS TO FACILITATE COOLING OF BRAKES
  • B60T7/00—Brake-action initiating means
  • B60T7/12—Brake-action initiating means for automatic initiation; for initiation not subject to will of driver or passenger
  • B60T7/20—Brake-action initiating means for automatic initiation; for initiation not subject to will of driver or passenger specially for trailers, e.g. in case of uncoupling of or overrunning by trailer

Definitions

• the invention relates to a brake control arrangement for a vehicle network, consisting of a towing vehicle and at least one trailer according to the preamble of patent claim 1.
• the trailer In the case of trucks or tractor units, the trailer (or the semitrailer) is supplied with the brake pressure required for braking via an air pressure line or the like.
• This brake pressure should ideally be set or regulated so that the trailer decelerates with exactly the same braking acceleration as its towing vehicle.
• Such a matching braking behavior of trailer and towing vehicle has the essential advantage that the braking process can be controlled very precisely and neither trailer nor towing vehicle can break out. At most, it is permissible to choose a slightly larger braking deceleration than that of the towing vehicle, because in such a case the braking process can still be controlled and, on the other hand, the more maintenance-intensive brakes of the towing vehicle are protected.
• Electric or electronic brake control systems are increasingly being used in trucks, in which an electronic control device generates a pneumatic or hydraulic brake pressure for the brakes of the towing vehicle on the basis of a braking request from the driver and a large number of other measured and / or stored parameters provides.
• EBR Electric or electronic brake control systems
• a conventional mechanical brake control arrangement must also be provided, which generates a pneumatic or hydraulic brake pressure in a very conventional manner.
• a trailer control valve arranged in the towing vehicle is provided, to which the brake pressures of the electronic brake device (EBR) and the conventional mechanical brake device are supplied.
• the trailer control valve is designed so that it switches through the maximum pressure at its two inputs to the brakes of the trailer.
• the trailer control valve is therefore a maximum value selection valve.
• the object of the invention is to improve the known brake control arrangement in such a way that a towing vehicle equipped with a brake control arrangement according to the invention can also drive with such trailers or semitrailers which are not equipped with a device for load-dependent braking (ALB), wherein then the trailer is still braked depending on the load.
• ALB load-dependent braking
• the shut-off valve is operated as a so-called “failsafe” valve, ie in its active working position held by an electric current, the valve is closed and thus separates the mechanical brake control from the trailer control valve, while if this electric current fails, the shut-off valve automatically switches on returns to its rest position, in which the connection between the mechanical brake control and the trailer control valve is established.
• the trailer control valve selects the larger of the two inlet pressures and passes this to the trailer brake. If the electronic brake device fails, the brake pressure generated by it will be at the value "0", so that the mechanically generated one Brake pressure is the higher and brakes the trailer.
• the electronic brake control contains a monitoring device which continuously monitors the function of the electronic brake control. This monitoring device only generates an active output signal for shutting off the shut-off valve if no fault is detected. Thus, for example in the event of a total power failure for the electronic brake control, the electrical signal for actuating the shut-off valve will also fail, so that it then reaches its "safe" rest position and connects the mechanical brake control to the trailer control valve.
• the electronic brake control for the trailer brake generates a pneumatic or hydraulic brake pressure, which depends on the one hand on the braking request of the driver and on the other hand on the mass of the trailer or semi-trailer, so that a load-dependent brake pressure is supplied to the trailer, which usually differs from that brake pressure applied to the towing vehicle.
• the trailer therefore does not have to be equipped with an ALB function.
• This function is rather taken over by the electronic brake control, which is arranged in the towing vehicle.
• the electronic brake control is supplied with a signal corresponding to the mass of the trailer or semitrailer or a coupling force between the towing vehicle and the trailer, which signal is generated in accordance with the above-mentioned prior art. Depending on this signal, the braking pressure provided for the trailer is modified.
• ABS anti-lock device
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the brake control arrangement according to the invention.
• FIG. 1 shows an electronic brake control 1, which outputs a pneumatic or hydraulic brake pressure to a pressure line 2 from electrical input signals and a pressure medium source, not shown, which is fed to an input of a trailer control valve 3.
• the brake control arrangement has a mechanical, i.e. pneumatic or hydraulic brake control 4, which in a conventional manner depending on a braking request, such as. depressing a brake pedal by the driver, generates a pneumatic or hydraulic pressure that is output to a pressure line 5.
• this pressure is supplied to an inlet of a shut-off valve 6, the outlet of which is connected via a further pressure line 8 to a second inlet of the trailer control valve 3.
• the trailer control valve 3 is designed as a maximum value selection valve, i.e. it switches through the greater pressure of the two pressures present at its inputs to its output, this output being connected to a pressure medium line 9, which is connected via a coupling, not shown, to the braking system of the trailer or semitrailer, not shown.
• the electronic brake control 1 contains a monitoring device 14 which monitors the functionality of the electronic brake control in a manner known per se and detects malfunctions or a total failure.
• the monitoring device is designed such that it outputs an active signal, ie an electrical voltage or an electrical current, which actuates the shut-off valve 6 on an electrical line 7 when the electronic brake control 1 is in a fault-free state.
• the shut-off valve 6 is designed as a "failsafe" valve, ie it then actively shuts off the connection between the pressure lines 5 and 8 when an electrical voltage is present on the line 7, ie when the shut-off valve 6 is electrically excited.
• the electrical voltage on the electrical line 7 is below the response threshold of the shut-off valve 6, this will drop into its idle state, which is usually done by the force of a mechanical spring.
• the pressure lines 5 and 8 are connected to one another, so that ultimately the brake pressure provided by the mechanical brake control 4 is supplied to an input of the trailer control valve 3. Since in an error case the pressure medium pressure, which is provided by the electronic brake control 1 on the pressure line 2, has the value "0", the pressure on the pressure line 8 is greater than that on the pressure line 2, so that the trailer control valve 3 then Selects pressure on the pressure line 8 and leads to the pressure line 9 and thus to the trailer brake. This ensures safe braking in the event of an error.
• An error case is among other things a Total failure of the vehicle's electrical power supply. In this case too, the monitoring circuit 14 would switch off the electrical current on the line 7 and the shut-off valve 6 would go into the described rest position.
• the electronic brake control 1 is divided into two sections 16 and 17 here.
• Sub-area 16 is responsible for determining the brake pressure for the towing vehicle and sub-area 17 for determining the brake pressure for the trailer or semi-trailer.
• An electrical brake request signal is fed to both subareas via an electrical line 18, which is tapped, for example, via a potentiometer which is connected to the brake pedal of the towing vehicle. Depending on the depression, i.e. Position of the brake pedal therefore results in a different braking request.
• the electronic braking device generates in the partial area
• this function is implemented in subarea 17 of the electronic brake control 1.
• the sub-area 17 is supplied via an electrical line 15 with the mass (weight) of the trailer or semi-trailer or a signal corresponding to the coupling force between the towing vehicle and the trailer, which signal from the sub-area
• This signal on line 15 can be generated in any way, as is known for example from the prior art mentioned at the beginning.
• the mechanical brake control 4 receives the braking request in a known manner via an actuating element which is schematically represented by the arrow 19 and which can be, for example, the brake pedal of the towing vehicle. From this, a braking pressure is generated for both the towing vehicle and the trailer brake, which is supplied to the respective brakes on the pressure lines 11 and 5. Of course, these two pressures can be of different magnitudes, in accordance with a distribution of the braking force between the trailer and the towing vehicle, which is set at the factory.
• a towing vehicle equipped with the brake control arrangement according to the invention can therefore also be coupled to trailers or semi-trailers which do not themselves have automatic load braking. Nevertheless, the trailer can then be braked according to an ALB function that is provided by the towing vehicle. This results in improved driving stability, less tire wear on the trailer and finally, if it is equipped with an anti-lock function, an improvement in anti-lock protection since it does not It has to regulate more from an excessively high pressure but only from a lower brake pressure, which makes the anti-lock control faster and more sensitive.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Transportation (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Regulating Braking Force (AREA)
• Braking Systems And Boosters (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8166059

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Cited By (5)

Families Citing this family (18)

Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (12)

• 1995
  • 1995-07-14 WO PCT/EP1995/002778 patent/WO1997003871A1/de active Application Filing
  • 1995-07-14 JP JP50619397A patent/JP3715321B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1995-07-14 DE DE19581733T patent/DE19581733B4/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1995-07-14 US US08/952,050 patent/US6012781A/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

Patent Citations (2)

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